Aliu Bello makes for a fascinating interviewee. He has already had a successful career in project managing international aid projects and is now exploring entrepreneurship for the first time by setting up a new business to support others. Aliu met a mentor at the Bristol Meet A Mentor event who has helped him with his new venture.

Prior to setting up his business, Aliu was a project manager for emergency aid projects with UNICEF. His role took him around the world, including Nigeria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Ghana, and he has lived for around 5 years in each of these countries.

Now Aliu has launched a new venture to support Black and Minority Ethnic-led businesses in the Bristol and South Gloucestershire area. He was motivated to do so after seeing support for these businesses diminish in recent years. He says;

"I felt that the BME Communities in this area could really benefit from sustained technical and  professional advice to enable them to survive and grow. Our support focuses on empowerment and capacity building."

As well as providing local support, the company aims to draw on Aliu's international experience by taking its services to key projects in developing countries too.

Although Aliu has a wealth of project management and international skills, he has never actually run a business which is why he was interested sourcing a mentor. He says:

" I have been a mentor myself in the area of public health when I was with the UN. I used to have a large team of multi disciplinary interns many of whom I mentored and some of them I'm still communicating with now. That 's why know the benefit of being mentored in an area where I'm not strong".

"The Bristol event in March was very timely for me. I wanted to broaden our entrepreneurial scope and felt l would benefit greatly from finding a mentor to offer guidance and frank suggestions on how to move forward".

At the event Aliu identified four mentors and he says he was 'cautiously optimistic' about the potential for these mentors to turn into longer term relationships.

Since the event he has met three times with one mentor and has found it very productive. One of the most useful outcomes is that the mentor has put him in touch with two other people who are working in a similar area and I have now also met them to exchange ideas. Another mentor is also created a potential opportunity for Aliu's business to join a consortium to enable them to tender collaboratively.

Aliu is unequivocal about the support that mentoring can bring, he says

"When people support you, you appreciate them forever. The Bristol had a lot of impact on my thinking, I met so many people who were supportive, it really gave me courage to pursue my ideas".